Pinto, manager of the independent Southern Illinois Miners, works as a motivational speaker during the winter. He travels from city to city inspiring business people, sometimes in front of crowds as large as 5,000 at corporate conventions.

To show the audience how to face its fears, Pinto ignites a stick, then puts it in his mouth. You can see for yourself at the one-minute mark of this video:

Twice a year, Pinto asks players to eat fire in a team meeting. "You get these players who are real macho and all of a sudden that flame gets about six inches from their face and they start to feel the heat, they aren't always so brave at that moment," Pinto says with a laugh.

This fire-eating manager isn't on the hot seat. Pinto has the highest winning percentage in Frontier League history and his Miners have reached the playoffs in six of the last seven seasons.

Tim Hagerty is the broadcaster for the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas, and is on Twitter at @MinorsTeamNames . He is also the author of "Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball's Most Off-the-Wall Team Names."